The Tutor.com Blog

VP of Sales and Marketing, Sandi White with Southeast Sales Director, Krissie Smith at ALA2009

As VP of Sales at Tutor.com, ALA is often about long days at the booth talking about our great services and meeting with clients and prospective clients. It is wonderful and fun and always rewarding. ALA though for me is also about reconnecting with dear old friends. Former colleagues and clients from years ago……catching up on each other’s lives; getting updates about each other’s kids and discovering the good news (weddings, etc) and the not so good news (divorces, etc). For me, ALA is really about personal history, memories and cherished relationships. If it wasn’t for my days at the ALA annual, I would not have the opportunity to learn that Mary Ellen has remarried; that Don and his kids are coping as best as possible with the loss of his wife and their mom or that Dave has moved on to yet another new company. Each year, ALA is staged at a new locale but fortunately every year the same dear old friends are there whom I can catch up with…at least once a year. Thanks ALA for the memories!

The ALA 2009 conference is officially underway, so be sure to stop by Booth 1848 if you’re in Chicago.  We’re throwing a Block Party, showing off our new Learning Suite, and giving one lucky library a Nintendo Wii.  We look forward to seeing you.  In the meantime, here are a few links to whet your appetite:

• However you feel about Windows Vista, give Bill Gates a hand—his charitable foundation donated $2 million to the ALA’s Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study, which measures public access to the internet and helps library directors advocate for more resources.  The study began in 1994 and will continue for another three years, thanks to this donation.
• David Lee King, Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, posted a helpful video on his blog for librarians using Facebook to connect with their patrons.  He’s at ALA too, so we look forward to hearing more about social media in the library world.
• We love gaming almost as much as we love libraries here at Tutor.com, so we’re excited to hear that the ALA exhibit floor will once again include a Gaming Pavilion.  Library Journal reports that Demco, Gen Con, Screenlife Games and Wizards of the Coast (the people behind Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering) will be there, among others.  Don’t forget your d20!

Entrance to ALA's Tradeshow Floor

Wow. There is A LOT that goes into getting ready for the ALA Annual Conference.  We’ve been exhibiting at the show for years, but I didn’t truly appreciate how much work went into setting up until this year as a member of the Tutor.com set-up crew. There’s lots to think about: Is the electricity working? Did all of the boxes arrive? Does the new furniture we bought look okay arranged this way? Where’s the closest Best  Buy to purchase a new computer monitor? (You never know what can happen during shipping.) Luckily, we have an in-house tradeshow ace, Gary Yip, who keeps everything organized and running smoothly.

Every exhibitor—from the smaller ones to the biggies like Scholastic—is working hard to transform a sparse-looking area of carpet into an impressive interactive area. I’m looking forward to the big unveil at the McCormick Place  in Chicago on Saturday morning when the tradeshow floor opens.

We’ll be throwing a Community Block Party at our booth—#1848—to celebrate the launch of our new Tutor.com Learning Suite. Stop by to check out what’s new, meet the Tutor.com team and enjoy a snack with us.

Due to slashed budgets and rising travel costs, conference attendance across almost all industries has taken a hit–attendance was down 23% even at the very popular Consumer Electronics Show, and the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando is reporting a 26.5% year-to-date decrease in attendance. While we are excited to see lots of you at ALA, we know some of you won’t be there.

We’ll be tweeting and blogging throughout the conference, so you can follow along with the action – but we want to know how do you to stay in touch–when you don’t go to a conference?

Have you found Twitter helpful in hearing what your colleagues are saying, or is your RSS reader bursting with blogs? Do you start every day with a listserv, or do you have local, face-to-face meetings with neighboring libraries?

There’s always something new, and it’s a lot to take in–even if you don’t leave your desk. If you aren’t attending a conference, consider keeping an eye on some of your favorite exhibitors and movers-and-shakers and ask them to send you copies of any demos/presentations, or their thoughts on what they learned.

If you will be at ALA – please come join our Block Party at Booth 1848. Meet our team, enter a contest to earn a Wii for your library, and take a tour of our NEW Tutor.com Learning Suite.

Tutor.com has always been pleased to partner and work with innovative libraries. And once again, one of our clients has been recognized for its outstanding programming for kids and teens.

This year’s winner of the ALA/Information Today, Inc. Library of the Future Award is the Indianapolis-Marion County Library System in Indianapolis, IN.

As recently posted on the YALSA blog, there is a digital divide between those kids who have access to laptops, desktops and current software, and those whose only access to the internet is at public locations such as schools and libraries. As we concern ourselves with preparing our school kids for the twenty-first century, kids without access to today’s technology, including iPods, cell phones, as well as adaquate computer access are left even further behind their peers.

IMCLS’s new physical and virtual space, The Learning Curve @ Central Library addresses the needs of kids from their toddler to teenage years, by giving them not just access to, but also instruction in the use of technology today. And they make it fun, with an interactive virtual universe, CurveWorld, that builds literacy in information, technology and media through fun games and activities.

Like Tutor.com’s Live Homework Help®, The Learning Curve @ Central Library, aims to bridge the digital divide. Groups and individuals can visit the library for planned activities and to visit the Learning Curve space where they can experience the interaction of technology and traditional literacy, and the evolving role of the public library.

How refreshing to have so many new things to show librarians at ALA this year. Just last week Tutor.com released a new look to Live Homework Help®, including a separate Adult Learner entry page. This came about during conversations with our library customers, who knew that adults utilize Live Homework Help for assistance when studying for their GEDs, for help with cover letters and resumes, adults going back to school and even immigrants studying for their US citizenship tests.

Linked directly from adult services and reference pages on the library website, adult patrons are directed to a separate Adult Learner log in screen.

One of our longtime clients from a large Midwest library system stopped by the booth to tell us this story from one of her patrons. Recently, she hosted an event for childcare providers at the libary. One of the attendees, after seeing a demo of Live Homework Help, almost broke down saying, “this is the answer to a prayer.” The patron admitted she was studying for her GED and was struggling. At her prayer group the week before, the group offered up a prayer for her to get help with her studies.

Along with the enthusiasm from public libraries, the level of interest from college and university librarians has been encouraging. We look forward to sharing more about even more offerings for Adult Learners in the coming months.